Aftermath

Violence and the Remaking of a Self

De: Susan J. Brison

Narrado por: Susan J. Brison

This audiobook narrated by Susan J. Brison offers a powerful personal narrative of recovery and an illuminating philosophical exploration of trauma

On July 4, 1990, while on a morning walk in southern France, Susan J. Brison was attacked from behind, severely beaten, sexually assaulted, strangled to unconsciousness, and left for dead. She survived, but her world was destroyed. Her training as a philosopher could not help her make sense of things, and many of her fundamental assumptions about the nature of the self and the world it inhabits were shattered.

At once a personal narrative of recovery and a philosophical exploration of trauma, this bravely and beautifully written book examines the undoing and remaking of a self in the aftermath of violence. It explores, from an interdisciplinary perspective, memory and truth, identity and self, autonomy and community. It offers imaginative access to the experience of a rape survivor as well as a reflective critique of a society in which women routinely fear and suffer sexual violence.

As Brison observes, trauma disrupts memory, severs past from present, and incapacitates the ability to envision a future. Yet the act of bearing witness, she argues, facilitates recovery by integrating the experience into the survivor's life's story. She also argues for the importance, as well as the hazards, of using first-person narratives in understanding not only trauma, but also larger philosophical questions about what we can know and how we should live.

©2026 Susan J. Brison (P)2026 Princeton University Press

Reseñas de la Crítica

"Brison's descriptions of the horrors of the first weeks after the assault are absorbing and perceptive. . . . [She] is no less engaging when she examines the literature of trauma, victimization and recovery. . . . [An] inspiring volume."—Mimi Wesson, Women's Review of Books

"I think this is a great book—I use those words sparingly--deeply revealing and fundamentally pessimistic. It is more painful and far less sentimental than Anne Frank's diary."—Jonathan Mirsky, The Spectator

"An illuminating study. . . . Susan Brison charts the disintegration of identity that occurs after sexual violence, and the long and arduous journey back toward a new self. . . . Restrained, lucid, and elegant, Aftermath is a testament to endurance and, ultimately, to survival."—Jo Ann Beard, O, The Oprah Magazine